The Anchorage Assembly will take up AO-96, the LGBT rights ordinance, at their meeting tonight. The meeting starts at 5 PM, however, those attending meetings usually have to sit and wait not knowing when their business will be taken up. Not so with AO-96.
Assembly Chairman DIck Traini told me “I intend to take this up at 8 pm, gives us 3 hours to reach a decision.”
Traini’s comment on 3 hours is in reference to the assembly meeting being scheduled to adjourn at 11 PM. That can be extended to midnight by a supermajority vote of 8 of the 11 members. The Anchorage municipal charter then kicks in, stating no business can be conducted after midnight or before 7 AM.
If discussion on the ordinance is not concluded by midnight the assembly will have to adjourn until at least the next day, but could continue business not acted upon until the next regularly scheduled assembly meeting.
For context, the work session assembly members held on Friday for the ordinance and the 17 currently proposed amendments allowed for only a quick explanation of the each amendment and a few questions from members. No discussion on substance of the amendments, amendments to the amendments, or votes were allowed. Even with that limited business the meeting took 1 hour and 24 minutes.
You can view the assembly agenda here.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
